Paul Simon

Poetic and haunting, Rhythm showcases Simon's impressionistic lyrics ("Further To Fly") and mirrors South Africa's tense climate in the early 1990s ("The Cool, Cool River"). The album's controversy centered around whether Simon was commercially exploiting a troubled situation or just following his muse and conscience.

On Graceland, Paul Simon's spirited, cross-cultural masterpiece. the singer-songwriter was
"looking for a shot of redemption." Over the course of his brilliant solo career to that point.
Simon had dutifully paraded his tangled emotions on the epics of despair Paul Simon and
Still Crazy After All These Years, as well as on the slightly less constrained There Goes
Rhymin' Simon and Hearts and Bones. But on Graceland, he showed a willingness... More >

His life in the bush of a fully-formed middle-class music scene more sophisticated than he'll ever be ("The Obvious Child," "The Coast") (Grade - *)